Why I Ignored a Late-Night Email From My New Boss (And You Should Too)

“I imagine this happens a lot, managers with a day full of high-leverage activities don’t get around to the less-important reminder type messages until later at night. They send an email so they don’t forget, and subordinates scramble to respond. Employees burn energy that should be recharging for the next day. Then they give themselves a big dose of self-fulfillment for doing something that — in reality — does’t help the company.This is totally the opposite of how work used to happen. Before email, if the boss contacted you after-hours it was most definitely a high-priority. It was probably even an emergency. They maybe even had to dig through your HR file to find your home phone number. There was a lot of friction involved in contacting people after hours. And that friction filtered out the low-priority messages.That friction no longer exists. Low-hanging fruit is just a forward button away from zapping into your inbox at 11 p.m., killing your down time and causing nervous sweats.”

As leaders, we need to recognize the ubiquity of communications channels, and resist the temptation to use them off hours unless they’re absolutely critical. If the building is burning down, by all means call the people you need to call. If it’s not important enough for that call, then don’t send an email. Queue it up if you must, but don’t send it until the morning.

If you found this interesting, I welcome you to check out my books. I'm currently finishing up the last part of the book on Brexit that I'm serializing. Parts (1) covering the challenges in the EU prior to the referendum, & 2) which dives into the primary factors that drove the referendum's result, are already out. Part 3, which covers the events and circumstances following the EU referendum in June 2016, is scheduled for late 2018. The first book by the Wicked Problems Collaborative, an anthology titled, "What do we do about inequality?" is also available!